1. Technical Field
The invention relates to repair of punctured or otherwise leaking pneumatic or other tires. More particularly, the invention relates to a system for determining whether a one piece patch-plug, or a two piece complex repair is necessary to repair a hole in a pneumatic or other type of tire. Specifically, the invention is a probe and gauge system whereby the probe is inserted into the hole and the angle of the hole, known as the injury angle, is calculated on the gauge to determine the need for a simple one piece patch-plug, or a complex two piece repair kit.
2. Background Information
Wheels have been used for thousands of years on carts and other horse and oxen drawn carriages, trailers, etc. However, all of these earlier wheels were approximately round stones, pieces of wood, or other similar materials. The ride was very rough as the wheel was not resilient in any manner.
With the advent of the automobile approximately one hundred years ago came the increased demand for wheels in general, and more importantly wheels of a resilient nature. The rubber tire was invented in this same era as the invention of the automobile. These early tires were solid rubber toroidal or donut shaped members. The rubber provided improved characteristics including minimal defamation when a bump was encountered and thus an improved ride.
With increasing automobile speeds and further demand for a better ride, the pneumatic tire was invented. Many patents exist on this revolutionary technology. It rapidly became the industry standard for automobiles as well as trucks, trailers, and almost all other vehicles including air plane tires.
One disadvantage of the pneumatic tire is deflation when punctured or otherwise severed. Any hole deflates the pressurized pneumatic tire and causes collapse of the tire. Such collapse requires the vehicle to immediately stop or else the tire will begin to disintegrate and shread, and damage will also be incurred to the rim the tire is mounted on.
For this reason, the tire must either be replaced or repaired. Patches and plugs have been developed and have been in use for decades to repair the injuries such as puncture holes in both the tube within a tire as well as the actual tire in either a tube or tubeless embodiment. It is this tubeless embodiment that has become the industry standard in many areas such as automobile tires.
Different varieties of repair devices and kits have been developed including patches of a generally flat nature which are adhered and/or melted onto the inside surface of the tire over the hole. Other repair devices include plugs which are inserted into the hole, typically from the outside of the tire. Some of these devices are simple one piece, one step designs while others are more complex involving multiple pieces and/or multiple steps.
One of these repair devices that is popular in the market today is the STEELMAN(copyright) PATCH-PLUG COMBO as sold JS Products, Inc. of Las Vegas, Nev. It is a one-piece patch plug combination device that is simple to use to repair injuries such as puncture type holes in pneumatic tires. However, this one-piece patch plug combination device, as well as many other of the devices currently on the market, may only be used in certain type injuries within a known injury angle range or other constraints; otherwise, more complex two piece patch and plug mechanisms are necessary.
It is contemplated that a device or system is needed to indicate to the repairman whether or not the one piece patch plug combination is safely and reliably usable on the given injury.
Objectives of the invention include providing a device or system for measuring the angle of the injury.
An additional objective of the present invention is to provide a method of determining the angle of the injury to a tire.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a gauge or other indicia to indicate to a tire repairman whether or not a particular type of repair kit may be used to repair a specific tire injury.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a tire repair xe2x80x9cgoxe2x80x9d/xe2x80x9cno-goxe2x80x9d gauge.
These and other objectives and advantages of the invention are obtained by the device, system and method for measuring the angle of injury in a tire of the present invention, the general nature of which may be stated as including a device for determining the availability of a repair kit for an injury extending into a pneumatic tire, the device including an elongated body having a length sufficient to be insertable within the injury while still extending outward from the tire, and a gauge having an edge with a mid-point, the mid-point being alignable with the elongated body at a point of insertion of the elongated body into the injury, the gauge further including at least one indicia thereon indicating a range in which the repair kit is usable. The invention is further embodied as a method of determining the availability of a repair kit for an injury extending into a pneumatic tire, the method including the steps of (1) inserting an elongated body into an injury on a pneumatic tire such that at least a portion of the elongated body remains extending out from the tire, (2) aligning a mid-point on an edge of a gauge with a point of intersection of the elongated body with the tire, and (3) determining the angle of the elongated body in the injury with respect to a perpendicular imaginary line extending from a surface of the tire that the injury extends through.